CARA Education and Outreach:
University Education

At first glance the Center's university education programs seem fairly
typical. The scale of involvement of students may be higher than
normal, with more than 77 students having participated, partly due to the
aggressive stance CARA takes toward education and partly because of
its support of undergraduates in research.
Otherwise, these efforts
seem no different than other programs. What is not obvious from the
statistics are the advantages to the university students of
participating in CARA. CARA students are part of a much wider, and
more supportive network than are other university students. As a
result of our experience with the Space Explorers, CARA knows well how
critical a sound social support structure is. This broadened
participation at the university level has two similar benefits. First,
these students, by being members of a larger organization, have access
to a rich array of other researchers and staff. Second, the network
these students become a part of tends to support them and help them
stay connected as they change institutions. This is perhaps why 2 out
of 3 participants are still with the Center and remain with CARA for
more than one year, and why one out of three postdoctoral fellows were
CARA graduate students.

CARA is also able to add another dimension to university education by
connecting graduate students who are interested in science education
with willing students (e.g. Space Explorers). Over each of the past
seven years CARA has supported one graduate student and encouraged
them to experience classroom teaching. This initiative has been very
effective in connecting the sometimes distant worlds of precollege
education and research. It also has had greater ramifications as it
served as the impetus for numerous new outreach initiatives and a few
alternative science careers. The progress of L. Rebull (CARA TA
'93-4) and T. Duncan (CARA TA '94-5) illustrate the positive influence
of the Center.

L. Rebull best exemplifies how Center resources can act as a catalyst.
She credits CARA with introducing her to the world of science
education. In a newspaper article on outreach, ``Rebull said it was
through her required teaching-assistantship working with inner-city
high school students and the University's Center for Astrophysical
Research in Antarctica that opened her eyes to the possibilities that
teaching could happen in other ways. `I still honestly don't think I
could ever teach in a high school classroom, but I really enjoy a more
informal interaction,' she said." She has
subsequently taken a leadership role in founding both the
Science
Partners For Teachers, which seeks to establishing one-on-one
partnerships with Chicago-area K-12 school teachers, and the
Chicago
Public School/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP).

T. Duncan has recently embarked on a career as an assistant professor
at the Portland State University
Center for Science Education. His
success exemplifies CARA's ability to cultivate a new generation of
well prepared science educators. His duties will include teaching and
developing a graduate program in science teaching. We can see the
seeds of CARA's outreach methodology sprout as his teaching will
include an innovative course that uses the Columbia River Basin as a
theme for developing students' critical thinking, writing, and
science/math skills. This course will be multidisciplinary,
team-taught (physics, anthropology and literature), and will utilize
current issues surrounding the Columbia river basin (energy
generation, impact on the environment, cultural history of the area,
etc.).

A particularly fortuitous relationship has been cultivated with the
Art Institute of
Pittsburgh (AIP), a collaboration that truly
demonstrates the multidisciplinary nature of science. AIP is a
two-year associate degree institution for Art and Design. As a result
of a the efforts of CARA postdoctoral fellow D. Alvarez, a simple
discussion three years ago that presented a number of tangible
problems associated with working in the Antarctic launched the AIP
Extreme Cold Weather Design curriculum. For the past three years,
students have designed materials such as specialized gloves to meet
the needs of researchers at the Pole. A number of
functional
prototypes have been produced and some are actually being used at the
Pole. CARA researchers have been involved in all stages of this
process, suggesting problems to solve, design modifications
(e.g. ``Those pedals are too small for my boots."), and field testing
the prototypes. This project has expanded in many directions as
students have contacted industrial firms which have produced
professional quality prototypes, and because this austral summer the
top AIP student accompanied the prototypes to the pole to supervise
the testing. There are two interesting footnotes to this project:
both a student and a researcher, partly due to this collaboration,
have been hired by Disney Corporation, and CARA and AIP have jointly
applied for a grant under the NSF Advanced Technological Education
program to enhance the project.